


Far and Wide

by ohlookanotherwriter



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, F/M, Pokemon AU, Working title? Who knows maybe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-08
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-14 07:02:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29913201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohlookanotherwriter/pseuds/ohlookanotherwriter
Summary: They pushed each other to train hard and battle their way through the Gym Challenge, but in the end one must always win over the other. Long gone, but never forgotten - their lives come crashing back together nearly ten years later.
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15





	1. prologue

Catra didn’t register the crowd's roar. Their cheering. Their applauding. All for Adora, all at Catra’s own expense. That was when it hit her - that was her final pokémon, fainted in the middle of the field. It didn’t make sense. It didn’t add up. Ten minutes ago, Catra had three pokémon left to her team and Adora was backed into a corner, down to her last resort - her faithful Growlithe. Catra was sure to win. She was supposed to win. She _needed_ to win. But they had agreed to an all out battle, no going soft in the final moments. It didn’t matter that battling was all she had. It didn’t matter that she spent the better part of the past year fighting through the Gym Challenge , taking down trainer after trainer, clawing her way to the top so she could face the Champion. It didn’t matter that if she lost in the semi finals she would be left with nothing. None of it mattered because Adora was right next to her the whole way, growing and training just as much as she had been, if not more. She should’ve known she never stood a chance against her. 

Catra called Houndour back to its pokéball, thanking him for the hard effort he put in, apologizing for failing him before clasping the ball to her belt. Of course Adora won. Adora always won. She was across the field, pumping her fists in the air, her Growlithe jumping around her in excitement as they both soaked in the attention from the audience. Her attention fell to Catra and her arms dropped to her side as she took off across the field towards her. For a moment, Catra considered turning and running, ashamed at her loss. One of them had to be defeated though. She had gone into her final battle knowing that. It shouldn't have been a shock that it would be her. 

“That was amazing, Catra! _You_ were amazing!” Thin arms wrapped around her neck before Adora’s body collided into her own. Catra held her hands out to the sides, unsure what to do with them before letting them fall and dangle limp beside her. In more ways than one, she was defeated. She didn’t have the energy to fake the happiness for her friend. 

Before she had the chance to say anything, the Champion was at their side, congratulating them both on the battle before whisking Adora away to the center of the field. Mara boasted Adora’s name across the crowd, holding the twelve year old’s hand high in the air as she confirmed the victory to the deafening cheers. Catra was long forgotten, a shadow casting over her. She disappeared off the field, down the tunnel to the locker room. She fiddled with the pokéballs at her hip, lightly brushing her fingers across their exterior. If she was trying to comfort her injured pokémon or her bruised ego, she was unsure. 

A few event employees tried to talk to her as she gathered her things from her locker. She ignored them all, her face hard as stone. She only acknowledged the existence of the nurse who offered to heal her partners and even then only with a curt please and thank you. The screen mounted on the wall of the locker room showed the final battle between the top trainer in the region and the Champion. 

Catra had no intention of joining the crowd cheering for her best friend. She didn’t want to hear some random strangers tell her how hard she tried. She took a seat on the bench in the middle of the room and looked up at the screen. Adora’s Aegislash was dodging each and every attack from Mara’s Luxray. It was looking promising until Aegislash took a direct thunder shock, clattering to the ground. Mara’s Luxray charged at it and chomped down, sparks spewing from its mouth. 

“You would’ve been smarter than to send a steel type to do a ground type’s job.” The curling voice took Catra by surprise. She turned in her seat, clutching her backpack to her chest. She came face to face with an older woman who smiled down at her, her head tilted slightly to the left. “Your friend there is all flash. I’ve been keeping an eye on you, though, dear Catra. You have raw fire power. Talent. Potential. And it was squandered. With the proper training, you could become stronger than any champion the world has ever known.” The strange lady cupped Catra’s face - a weirdly comforting gesture for her, akin to a mother’s touch - and leaned down until their noses were almost touching. The woman’s voice curled itself around Catra’s senses, sending a chill down her spine. “I can show you how if you would like.” 


	2. chapter one

_9 years later…_

  
Adora flipped through the channels. Arcanine slept at her feet, his head draped across one shoe and trapping her in her place until he awoke. Something on the news caught her attention. The announcer was panicked, flustered - breaking news out of Dryl. An explosion at the infamous First One’s Lab. The television cut to a view of the lab from the air, smoke and flames billowing out of the building while firefighters and their water pokémon kept the fire at bay as best they could. The announcer spoke over the footage, using more words than he needed to express that there was no information on the incident. 

Adora’s hand was already on her phone when it went off. The contact image of the person she had planned to dial herself flashed across the screen as a cheap tune rang from the device. “Hey.” She straightened herself. Arcanine stirred. He jumped up at the slight motion and hopped onto the couch next to Adora. She stroked the fur behind his ear as she waited for the gym leader of Brightmoon to respond. 

“Adora!” Glimmer’s voice was strained. Adora muted her television. “How fast can you meet me in Dryl?”

“Already on the way.” Without another word, Adora hung up and called Arcanine to its pokéball. Gathering the rest of her team and clipping them to her belt, she was out the door. 

As if Corviknight knew she was needed, she flew down from her roost on top of the small cottage. She allowed Adora to mount her after the trainer gave her a quick pat on the head and with the slightest signal from Adora, the flying type pokémon took to the air. 

If someone had told Adora ten years ago that being the Champion meant dealing with a different crisis every day, she would’ve never signed up for the Gym Challenge. There were a handful of other reasons her path in life was a painful one but she chose to shove those memories down a long time ago, no matter how hard they tried to fight their way back to the surface. 

But she wasn’t concerned about that at the moment. Usually her day to day conflicts dealt with poachers, illegal pokémon markets, small gang violence across the region. It had been a while since she had dealt with something quite as severe as a possible attack on one of the most important laboratories in, arguably, the whole world. Though Adora wouldn’t have put it past Dryl’s gym leader to have accidentally set off the explosion herself. She was hardly one to heed caution if her experiments looked as though they could take a nasty turn. 

She would find out soon enough, though. The mountain ranges of Dryl came into view. As Corviknight weaved through the peaks, Adora could see they were closing in on the town perched on the mountain side. Smoke still rose from the center but it wasn’t as thick as it was when she had seen it on the news. The firefighters and their partner pokémon had successfully snubbed out the remaining flames and were on to dosing the embers at the center of the disaster. Adora circled the area until she spotted Glimmer huddled in a circle with Bow and Entrapta. Women in official looking suits stood a few feet from them, discussing amongst themselves. She signaled Corviknight to land. After dismounting, she called Corviknight back to its pokéball and approached her seemingly fear struck friends. The color drained from each of their faces as they saw Adora walk up to them. They exchanged a glance before Glimmer silently handed Adora a folded piece of paper. Across the top was a stylized ‘T’ and ‘H’ placed on top of a simplistic skull with a tuft of blue hair off the top of its head. The note within was scrawled out in sharp handwriting that seemed almost familiar to Adora. 

_Thanks for the tech - Team Horde_

Her eyes went wide. “Who—“

“Someone stole it!” Bow shrieked. He held his face between his hands as he focused on the ground, baring his teeth in a grit. “They stole everything, they—“

“Oh, don’t be dramatic.” Entrapta waved a hand in the air. “They only took data, the algorithms, the schematics, the files on trial and error - which I have plenty of backups of.”

“So pretty much everything.” Glimmer concluded with her arms crossed in front of her. 

“But I have backups.” 

Adora needed them to take it about five steps back. Entrapta and Bow took turns unraveling the tale of what happened. The two had been working on tech that would help locate rare pokémon based on energy signatures released when they used powerful attacks - Adora knew about this, she supported and helped fund their research. They were tinkering with different models for the prototype when they heard an explosion coming from the other side of the building, where pokémon were resting and playing in a field just outside. 

“And we found that note after we were able to secure the building.” One of the official looking women approached them and stuck a hand out to Adora. “Champion, I wish we could’ve met under different circumstances. I’m Detective Juliet, I believe you already know my partner, Detective Castaspella.”

Adora accepted the detective’s hand and gave it a firm shake. “Do you two have any idea about this Team Horde?” She asked, holding the note up in display. Castaspella reached out with a gloved hand and plucked the piece of paper from Adora’s fingers, inspecting the message herself. 

“Small crime syndicate. Usually busting into daycares, swiping any pokémon they can get their hands on to sell to the highest bidder. Until today, that is.” Casta raised an eyebrow as she scrutinized the note further, her lips pursed. 

“Small time thugs, only recently started turning heads around the region, though we think they’ve been plotting for a while now. At least a few years.” Juliet took the note from Casta. “Looks like the same handwriting as the others. We'll take this to forensics and see if our cat burglar left any prints this time.” She procured an evidence baggie from her coat pocket and slipped the note inside. 

“They’ve left notes at other scenes?” Glimmer stole her attention from comforting Bow, her interest suddenly piqued. 

“Like they’re showing off?” Adora’s eyes flickered between Glimmer and the detectives. “They want to be seen, recognized. For being so cunning and able to get away with it but if they keep going like this, they’re bound to mess up, right?” 

“That’s what we believe.” The detective gave a solemn nod. “They’re careful not to leave any evidence behind besides these notes, but this attack is a big step up from their usual MO. We have agents covering every inch of your lab searching for evidence, Entrapta - we believe with such a large leap there’s bound to be something here. In the meantime, I suggest you find somewhere to lay low for a while. If Team Horde has problems replicating your research, who's to say they won’t come for you to help - whether you like it or not.”

“Oh no, they shouldn’t have any problems at all.” Entrapta blurted, breaking to the front of the group and shoving Adora to the side in her rush. “I keep highly detailed notes on every facet of my experiments. On top of them being so heavily encrypted that if the person who stole them was intelligent enough to access them for download in the first place, they should have no issue understanding and replicating them.” She looked out into the distance between the two detectives, a look of wonder stretched across her face. “Truly fascinating. I would love to meet the one who found their way into my files.” 

——

“You can stay here but only until this is all settled, got it?” After a bit of fiddling around with her keys to find the right one, Glimmer allowed the doors of Brightmoon’s gym to fly open before the group.

With the flip of a switch, the room lit up with pink and purple lights to reveal an expansive, highly detailed mirror maze. Walking into Glimmer’s gym usually gave Adora a bit of a headache to be honest. She always counted herself lucky that Glimmer wasn’t in charge of the Brightmoon gym back in her challenger days. Her mom ran a much simpler operation with trick questions and riddles that weren’t too crazy difficult to answer. Considering Adora still got lost in the maze even though the new leader has long since had it installed, she surely would’ve never made it far in the Gym Challenge if this was her task. Fortunately, Glimmer knew it by heart and didn’t have a problem guiding them through the maze to the last chamber containing the battlefield where challengers would usually come to face her. Their destination, however, was through the locked door at the other side of the field. 

“Woah, like a gym challenge and security system all in one.” Entrapta took another glance over her shoulder at the maze before she was ushered through the doorway into a small room with a staircase leading up to another door. 

“Yeah, Entrapta, maybe if you had invested in a security system in the first place we wouldn’t be in this situation .” Glimmer shot over her shoulder as she led them furthermore up the stairs and into her apartment. 

“Hey, that’s not fair, now.” Bow jutted his lower lip out in a pout. “I helped develop her security system and it is the highest of high tech. We just… got caught with our pants down, I don’t know.” He crossed his arms with a huff and plopped himself down in the nearest armchair. 

Entrapta ventured into the apartment, passing through the living room and into the kitchen, dropping one of her bags on the sofa as she whisked by it. Glimmer and Adora exchanged a glance before following the two inside. 

“You’re sure there’s no footage of the guy?” Adora settled into the sofa next to Entrapta’s luggage. She leaned into Bow, elbows rested on her knees and one hand tucked under her chin in a fist. 

“Aunt Casta already looked at it.” Glimmer answered for him as she scooted the duffel bag over and took the spot next to Adora. “She said it looked like they looped them for the length of the attack, there’s not anyone caught on camera that wasn’t cleared to be there.”

“Great, so we’re dealing with a genius criminal, sounds perfect.” Adora drooped down into her seat and held her head in her hands. 

“Ahaha!” The trio’s attention snapped to Entrapta who had been causing a racket in the background. She finally settled into a perch on a stool at the counter, clacking and scrolling away on two separate laptops. “Why all so worried? I’ll track that harddrive down, no matter where it is - even to The Northern Reach!” 

“What now?” Bow had been clutching a pillow in his lap, gnawing away at his free thumbnail. As soon as he heard this, the pillow was on the floor and he was across the room in a flash. Adora and Glimmer rose to follow him. 

The screens meant nothing to Adora. She only recognized the map of the region and a few landmarks spread across the towns and villages, but she couldn’t understand the blips that flashed in no recognizable pattern across the map or the lines of text scrolling at lightning speed on the other screen. She took a step back from the group analyzing the information on the two laptops. 

“You can track the harddrive? Why wouldn’t you tell that to the detectives?” 

Entrapta whirled around on her stool, the legs lightly screeching across the floor with her rapid movement. “Well, I figured it would be faster if I just got it done myself, you see. In the time it would take me to explain the anti-virus I developed to them, I’d have located the thief myself.” She turned herself back around and resumed her typing on the one laptop showing the map of Etheria and the rapidly blinking dots. “I do have a very tricky problem on my hands, though, it seems. Wherever they are is protected by a scrambler device. It might take me some time but I believe once I clean up the mess a little bit, I’ll be able to find what I suspect to be this organization’s hideout. I must admit, they’ve given me quite a puzzle to figure out but this has been fun! I’ve dealt with a lot of attacks on my research, but none that have ever caused the need to utilize my anti-virus - this is so thrilling, my heart is racing!” 

Entrapta had grown shrill, her hands clenched in fists in front of her as her glare darted between screens. Adora, Bow, and Glimmer all had stepped away from Entrapta’s setup at this point. Blank stares were shared among the three, mouths hung agape. Bow was readying to speak up but was interrupted as Adora’s pocket began to chime. She retrieved her phone and groaned at the message that flashed across the screen. 

“Sorry guys, the Chairwoman wants to meet, I guess she’s seen the news. Keep me in the loop, I’ll be back in the morning.” Adora gave Bow and Glimmer a pat on the back, insisting further to keep in touch, before departing through the fire escape on Corviknight. She could hear Entrapta continuing her rant even as she flew away into the sky of orange and pink hues.


End file.
